‘This Could Really Be Art for All’: Why Daniel Birnbaum Is Leaving His Job as a Museum Director for a Career in VR, by Kate Brown

The esteemed director of the Moderna Museet is moving on to become the artistic director of the VR production company Acute Art.

Daniel Birnbaum. Photo: John Scarisbrick.

Daniel Birnbaum, one of the world’s most prominent curators, is leaving his plum position as the director of the Moderna Museet in Stockholm to take on an unlikely new role at a virtual and augmented reality art production company. The move is a powerful indication of just how seriously the art market, artists, and curators alike are beginning to take the burgeoning field of immersive digital technology.

The acclaimed Swedish curator, who has been leading the Moderna Museet in Stockholm for the past eight years, will relocate to London to assume the newly created role of artistic director of Acute Art on January 1. “Maybe it’s a surprising move,” Birnbaum tells artnet News from his home in Stockholm. “I may [have been] expected to stay here or move on to another museum.”